Silent Ponyville: Reunion

by Chapter 17

Part 3

Silent Ponyville: Reunion
Real Enough.
Part 3

------

What...what just happened?

Lance's eyes drifted open to see he was in a darkened room lit only by what scant beams managed to slip in through the gaps of the boarded up windows. He was lying on his side down on the floor for some reason, and there he stayed for a few moments as he tried to piece recent events back together in his head.

There was the trip to Ponyville, walking into the library, talking to Celestia's apprentice, then closing his eyes waiting for her to cast the spell, then...waking up to this. What was this anyway? He got back to his hooves and stood to look around.

It was the library but...it wasn't the library at the same time. As he had noticed already, the windows were boarded up from the inside. The shelves were empty, instead looking like they had been turned into makeshift cages, covered in improvised bars of sturdy twigs tied with twine. He looked up to see a collection of similarly constructed empty cages hanging from the ceiling. Not a book in sight. The colored carvings and panelings in the walls that had once brightened up the place were now faded and mostly worn away, almost unnoticeable next to the various trails and holes suggesting a termite infestation that had long ago run its course. It looked like nopony had even set hoof in the building for twenty years or more.

This was...not right. There was no way this could have been the library of Twilight Sparkle. A scholar of her caliber would never allow this place to descend into such a dilapidated state. It wasn't just dilapidation either; the cages were clearly a sign of some squatter who had occupied the place, hopefully long gone by now.

Perhaps in her inexperience she had botched the casting, and accidentally altered it into a teleportation spell...that...just so happened to send him to another building...that had the exact same structural layout as the library...

Yeah...that didn't sound ridiculous. At all.

He rolled his eyes at his own thought process. While he was at it he might as well ponder whether or not he had just been transported hundreds of years in the future...though he had to admit that seemed the more plausible of the two. Was this even worth mulling over right now?

Wait...the spell had supposedly been mental in nature...so was any of this even real to begin with or was it just some kind of dream he was having? He brought his hoof up to his face and gave his leg just above the wrist joint an experimental bite, resulting in a wince of pain on his part. Alright, he seemed to be lucid enough to control his actions, and although it wasn't a very scientific method the bite to his leg was enough to convince him he was awake. As far as he could tell, this was real, and indeed worth mulling over.

The next thing Lance grew curious about was his exact location. If he could just get a glance at the nearby buildings it would probably be enough to go on, if his memory of the view of Ponyville from the sky was reliable. He approached one of the boarded up windows and peeked out of one of the gaps to find the view wasn't very helpful at all. The only thing he could see was the tall, ill tended grass extending out for a distance before a thick fog hid it from view entirely. This wouldn't be much of a problem though, all he had to do was step outside and take a few steps away until another building came into view. After rounding the corner into the small entryway he brought his hoof up to the door knob.

It proved uncooperative, refusing to move with an obstinate click. He tried turning it a few more times just to make sure it wasn't just sticking on something but got the same result each time. Okay, the door was locked. A tad bit more inconvenient but still nothing to fret over. He would just look for the key. It had to be inside the library...cage...house...thing somewhere, else how would anypony be able to get out? That aside, even if he couldn't find a key he could just buck the door down, but it was still a bit early to resort to something so drastic.

The sparse light was difficult to search by, so he gave thanks that this room didn't appear to have anything in the way of small nooks to check. The cages in the walls were all empty, as were the ones hanging from the ceiling, and there was nothing on the...on the...what was that? 'Random assortment of wood nailed to a stand' was the closest description he could think of. Was that supposed to have been a table?

"Focus." He told himself with a shake of his head to get himself back on track. There was nothing in this room immediately useful, and definitely no key, so the stairs were naturally his next destination. There were two sets, or at least there had been two sets. One was missing entirely, resulting in a tall dim room with a boarded up door fifteen feet up on one wall. Confounding as it was it at least simplified things somewhat. He ascended the other set of stairs, finding a very out of place door of iron bars greeting him at the top.

Beyond the bars the lighting was even more sparse than below, having just one boarded up window from the loft above for light to seep through. The loft itself was enclosed inside a panel of gated chain link fence that was bolted over it, which was just as out of place as the bars currently keeping him out. The rest of the room was too dark to tell much of anything about, and he did not look forward to searching for a small key in such conditions. Fortunately something then caught his eyes and gave him an alternative to poking around the dark with his hooves.

It was a quick glint of light off of something metallic that was hanging off a nail in one of the boards covering the loft window. Normally he would consider the prospect of going after something just because it was shiny a bit simple minded, but from his spot stuck inside this 'unlibrary' he couldn't find it in himself to care. The door of iron bars remained in his way though. Looking down, he saw a simple bar latch holding it closed from the other side. He tried fitting a hoof through to no avail, then tried again with his snout and failed once more.

"Hrm..." There was nothing downstairs both small enough to fit through the bars but strong enough to lift the latch. Perhaps if there had been a horizontal crossbar in the door at any point he might have been able to untie some of the twine and use it as a makeshift pulley but there was no crossbar to be seen. He knew one more, much simpler solution, but he was hesitant to use it if there was anything else to be done. He didn't seem to have any choice though.

Lanced pressed an ear to the bars to listen. Dead silence.

"Anypony there? Anypony at all?" He asked the heavy darkness on the other side. It did not answer. Nopony was there...

Or at least nopony answered...

"...Alright then."

He extended one of his wings, lining it up between two of the bars next to the latch before carefully sidestepping toward the door with his body lowered. It fit between them easily, and the bar was soon resting atop the thickest part of his wing near the shoulder. With the remainder of his wing extended out into the quiet darkness he pushed upward. The bar came up a small distance quite easily but then stopped. He was about to bemoan his luck, but after giving it another push he found the latch bar wasn't hopelessly stuck on something, just very resistant to moving, probably attached to the wall by a loose bolt that was rusted over. This would take just a bit longer than he had thought it would. He pushed upward again, maintaining the force this time.

The latch kept moving slowly upward as his wing remained pushed into the darkened room.

Bit by bit.

Little by little.

He was almost the-

"Agh!" He exclaimed suddenly and practically stumbled away from the door.

Lance looked back and flapped his perfectly intact wing a few times to work the pain off. A slight movement on his part had pinched a nerve in just the right spot to send a harmless but irritating flash of pain through his shoulder. Unsurprising really, wings were made for flying, not pushing up stubborn, rusted over latch bars.

Hoping he wouldn't accidentally do that again he unfolded his wing and got back to it. It took only seconds more before the rust finally gave way and the bar moved aside easily, letting him push the door open with a soft creak. Even with his eyes adjusted to the low light he couldn't make out anything about the state of the room except for the small bit of stairs leading up to the chain link panel gate. This gate was also latched but fortunately it was neither rusted over nor on the opposite side of the gate, giving him easy access to the loft. He trotted over to the window to claim his conspicuously well polished prize.

It was a silver pocket watch hanging from a matching chain. The engraving on its covering face depicted a staff with a single serpent coiled around it. He reached up and pulled the chain free from the nail, and noticed the sound of something small being tossed about inside as it moved. A press of the button on top unlatched the cover and let the small object drop with a clink to the floor. Even in the dim light he could see it was a key, hopefully the one he sought.

After grabbing the key he examined the watch, finding that both hands were stone still. He brought it to his ear and gave it a shake to find that the key hadn't been the only thing rattling around inside of it. It made enough noise for him to conclude it was broken entirely. Though he couldn't think of many uses for a broken watch he still didn't want to just leave it there. Perhaps he just liked the look of it, maybe it reminded him of something, it might have even just been because it was the only clean thing he had found in this whole building, but for one reason or another he felt compelled to take it with him. The chain proved too short to loop around his neck, so both chain and key found themselves gripped in his mouth as he turned to leave...or at least started to leave. There was something lying at the base of the wall next to the stairs that he hadn't seen on his way in.

Heavy chains littered the floor, reddened with what he hoped was just rust. Attached to them were a few fasteners that looked to have been pulled out of the wall. He turned back to the boarded up window and noticed another somewhat alarming detail. The boards currently over it seemed fresher, less weathered. The only few pieces that looked old enough to match everything else were all broken off before they got so much as a foot in from the window's edge. There was something else too...even in the dim light, if he squinted he could make out words crudely scratched into one of the newer boards...

'It got out.'

Suddenly he found himself leaving.

He made sure to hurry back across the darkened room with just enough restraint to keep from tripping over some unseen object before he hurriedly fumbled with trying to get the latch back on as he stepped through the door and closed it behind him. He made it about halfway down the stairs before he stopped to look back, feeling first an odd sense of relief that the door was locked and out of sight around the bend, and then puzzlement at his own actions.

What the hay had just happened? Had he really just panicked his way out of a dark room that he was reasonably sure had been entirely empty?

"Just jumping at your own shadow." He chided himself, voice muffled by the chain and key gripped in his mouth. Normally he wasn't the type of pony to talk to himself, but it seemed to calm his nerves now. Even if that whole set piece up there wasn't just the efforts of some squatter deciding to mess with the heads of the next occupant before they left, there was no logical reason to let it get to his head. If 'it' had actually gotten 'out', then 'it' would be 'out' and not 'in' where he was. Besides that, there had been enough time after 'it' got out for somepony to board up the windows again. Had 'it' desired to get out so badly that it broke out of its chains and bashed through the first set of boards there was no reason to think it would just stick around afterward.

Lance descended back to the main room and went straight to the door. To his relief the key fit, and after giving it a turn the door knob was far more cooperative. He could leave whenever he wanted to now, but he had a little something else to address first. Though he did want to take his broken watch with him he didn't want to have to carry it in his mouth the whole time either. Thankfully there seemed to be more than enough material around that would be useful in fixing that problem.

He broke a small section of the twig caging off one of the walls before sorting out the wood bits and unwinding the twine. With a bit of difficulty in the low light he tied one end of the twine around the clasp at the end of the chain, and the other around the loop at the top of the watch. It fit around his neck now and left his mouth free, so while he would be sure to replace the length of string with something more resilient later on the problem was at least taken care of for now.

When he approached the door again he noticed that the key was gone from the lock, even though he was sure he had left it in there. Thinking it had simply fallen out without his noticing he looked down to the floor, but it wasn't there either. It was like it had just vanished into thin air. Was he locked inside all over again? He raised his hoof back to the knob to find his worries unfounded as it turned just as easily as before. Being able to open the door was what mattered most, there was no sense in wasting more time here worrying about a missing key he didn't even need anymore.

The door clicked shut behind him and left him alone outside. It was much colder out in the open, the foggy air heavy with the chill of a late autumn awaiting the winter just round the bend. One thing that hadn't changed from inside the tree house though was the complete lack of sound around him. Being no stranger to the ground, Lance had expected to hear the sounds of nature, or ponies talking as they went about their business off in the distance, even just the chirp of a bird overhead. But there was nothing. Just grass and the fog...and this house.

He took a few steps away then turned and looked up to take a gander at it from outside. The leaves had all fallen off and the tree was now a deathly grey color. Dark green parasitic vines crept up from the base and only added to the library's sense of desolation.

Even if he found that this place was indeed actually Ponyville, knowing that would do nothing to answer the new question that sprang to mind...what had happened here?!

The sound of wood creaking and then snapping followed by rapidly retreating hooves suddenly came out of the fog behind him He spun around and spent a few moments looking for any movement in the mist before calling out.

"Who's there? Hello?!"

No answer.

He stood rooted to the spot for a while as he found himself resistant to investigating what had made that noise. What else was he going to do though? Go back inside the house so useful that the only valuable thing inside it had been something that let him leave?

"Relax." He reminded himself. Those were hooves running off, that meant a pony. It was just a pony. There was no reason to be nervous. Lance pushed forward into the fog, aimed in the direction he had first heard the sound coming from. Instead of buildings as he had expected, he only encountered more and more grass. Was he even in town at all? This made it look like he was in the middle of a field...

At last something broke up the monotony of the grass. A dirt path came into view and it was the best thing he'd seen since waking up. Paths lead somewhere, hopefully somewhere that wasn't so strange in this case! As he closed the distance he spotted a small pointed wooden sign on the other side as well, holding even more promise of finally revealing exactly where he was. He eagerly crossed the path to get a better look at it. The first detail that popped out at him was that, judging from the empty nail holes and the splintering of wood, there had been two signs pointing opposite directions but one had just been wrenched off, partially explaining the noise he had heard. He brought his attention back to the remaining sign.

"...Ponyville?" He read it aloud, scarcely believing it. The building he had just left had been structurally identical to the library he knew for a fact was in town. All the same, here he was reading a sign giving him directions how to get to town. So he wasn't in town after all...but how the heck did an entire building just up and move to another location? Confusing as it was, at least it told him where he wasn't, and now he had a path to follow. None of his questions had been answered but his situation had still improved a bit all the same.

Just as he was about to set off down the path another sound from the fog startled him, this one of much more consequence than breaking wood and hoof steps. It sounded like a huge landslide back in the direction of the library that sent a tremor through the earth beneath him. The library was familiar territory to him so he felt far less hesitation before trotting back the way he had come. But what he found was not familiar territory. It wasn't even territory in any sense.

The library and the entire visible landscape in either direction were all gone. Lance stood with mouth agape looking into the yawning, fog shrouded chasm that had replaced them.

------

He tried not to ponder his situation too much as he trotted down the path. It was a remarkably easy feat with the constant distraction of the odd sounds that had started coming from the fog all around him. None of them were particularly threatening, just the odd snap of a twig, or what sounded like hoof steps on grass, or the rustling of unseen foliage. They didn't strike him as just a part of the ambiance though. Instead of pondering his overall situation he found himself just trying to figure out exactly why these sounds were starting to bother him so much.

They were out of place, he concluded. Just like the bars and chain link fence in the library. No sounds that would logically precede them were ever heard, neither were any sounds that would logically follow after them. The sounds just....got there...somehow. It didn't make sense. Was he even actually hearing these things?

Lance shook the thought out of his head. Wracking his brain wondering whether his ears were playing tricks with him or not was just as unhelpful to him right now as dwelling on the general situation. It would be of no benefit to fray his own nerves so that he couldn't think straight.

He jumped again as a twig broke a distance behind him...on the path he'd been walking all this time...upon which he'd seen nary a twig.

"Ignore it...the sounds aren't hurting you...just ignore it and keep moving." He said to nopony. This time talking to himself had the added benefit of busying his ears with something other than waiting with dread for the next sound in the fog. His own reassurances did little to stop him from picking up the pace to hasten his progress though.

He could soon see the silhouette of another sign in the fog to the right of the path. Lance didn't stop but was still able to read it with a glance as he passed by. It simply said 'Ponyville' again, pointing in the direction he was already going, not even giving an idea as to how much farther it would be. He shook his head and faced forward again, "Well that was certainly helpfu-

WALL.

Lance had nearly bungled right into it. The sign must have been far enough away for the fog to completely hide it from view while he had been glancing at it. It was a mossy cobblestone wall, strangely enough built right across the well worn dirt path. It extended off into the fog on both sides and was tall enough for the top to be hidden above. It looked solid and sturdy, surely not something he could just break through on his own. So, basically, it was no problem to the medically gifted pegasus at all.

Lance unfurled his wings and flew upwards. Young pegasi were always taught never to fly through dense fog in an unfamiliar place, but this short flight over a wall seemed hardly daunting enough to worry about that. The fog above proved even thicker than the fog below, and in short order he found his sight completely obscured. Even the wall right next to him vanished from view entirely. He slowed his ascent and began to periodically stick his hoof out to feel for it. After about four prods the cobblestone gave way to air, and his blind hoof found the top of the wall at last. He flew over and lowered himself down to the ground, back on the path once more.

That's when he saw the sign.

It was a sign that said 'Ponyville' pointing at the wall he had just flown over, on the opposite side of the road than the last one he had passed, as though it were the same sign and he'd just turned around. But how could that be? He'd been facing the wall his entire way up, he was sure of it. Just to double check his own senses he turned and flew back over the wall to find the same sign, and then flew over a third time to see the sign there yet again.

Okay, this had to be somepony playing a trick on him. The upper room in the library may have been a tad elaborate for a simple prank but just placing two reasonably identical signs pointing in opposite directions was an easy task. He knew exactly how he could put a stop to this right now.

Lance flew up along the wall but instead of going over he perched on top of it. The fog was so thick that it wouldn't be an easy task to clear it but being able to see both signs at once to put his mind at ease would be worth it. But when he brought his hooves up to try and gather the fog into easier to move cloud puffs it only flowed around them as it would for any earth pony or unicorn. He growled with irritation at this latest infraction of Equestrian physics and then flailed one hoof around for a while in a futile attempt to find purchase.

This wasn't working. But no matter, he still had one more idea to try. He drifted back down to the ground then drew an X in the dirt with his hoof. Fast as he could manage he leaped into the air and swiftly flew back over the wall, landing with a grunt before turning.

The X was there.

"Wh...what?! No...that..." He shook his head. That couldn't be. That was impossible. In disbelief he drew a circle around the X and flew over the wall yet again.

The X inside the circle was there.

He stood there dumbstruck looking at the drawing on the ground in utter shock. Was the fog actually turning him around without any sign of doing so aside from his returning to the same side over and over? Could it still just be a trick? If it was a trick it put the upper room of the library to shame at this point. Was it possible for somepony, or even a group of ponies, to see what he had written and then make an exact copy of it on the other side before he could get over the wall, and do so invisibly, in complete silence? It was starting to make the fog turning him around sound like the more sensible of the two nonsensical explanations.

Lance wordlessly took a seat at the base of the wall, keeping his back to it. He didn't care about the sounds in the fog at this point. All he wanted to do was take a breather and try to think this through, even if thinking had already proven completely ineffective against the ability of this place to seemingly ignore the way the world works at a whim. Obviously he would just have to wander along the wall until he found a way through or around it, then double back to find the path again, assuming the path was even actually on the opposite side at all....or that there even was an opposite side.

"Look out!" A colt yelled from above, breaking Lance out of his thoughts. A half second later the same voice cried out as Lance heard him hit the ground behind the wall and skid along the grass for a few feet before coming to a stop, letting out a groan of pain. Seconds later hoof steps galloped up to him.

"Are you okay?!" An out of breath mare asked him.

"Urgh...yeah...hang on...GAH...okay, I can still move it, probably just a sprain." The colt replied.

Lance stood up and tried to shout over to them, "Hey over there! Hello?! Can you hear me?!"

"What happened?" The mare asked.

"I was taking a nap during my break, then next thing I know, that black maned hotshot clips the cloud I'm sleeping on and I wake up just as I'm falling off!" The colt replied with no lack of annoyance at recalling the tumble, "Not the easiest thing ever to smooth off from free fall just as you're waking up."

"Hello!? Hey!" Lance kept shouting, apparently to no effect.

"I'm sure it was just an accident, he's never struck me as the type of pony to do stuff like that on purpose." The mare assured the colt.

"You know him?" He asked.

"Well, not directly, but I see him around a lot and everypony seems to like him."

"Pfft. Count me out of 'everypony' then. If he were such a good guy he'd be down here apologizing by now."

Lance snarled in frustration then reared up on his hind legs while drawing in the deepest breath he could before he dropped back down and let out a bellow in one last attempt to get their attention, "HEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!"

"Oh cut him some slack, maybe he didn't see you. There's no reason to work yourself up over what might not be anything." She scolded the colt, apparently still not hearing anything amiss on Lance's side of wall.

He sighed in exasperation and sank back to the ground grumbling instead of wasting anymore of his breath on half deaf ponies.

"'Might not be anything'?! I nearly broke my wing! I'll be grounded for a good week as it is anyway! I know you don't really understand where I'm coming from, being an earth pony and all, but injuring another pegasi's wings is never a case of 'might not be anything'!" The colt explained.

"Hrmph...earth pony huh?" The mare replied with an almost amused tone before Lance heard her unbuckle a set of saddle bags she must have been wearing and let them drop to the ground.

"...uh...oh...um...sorry." The colt said sheepishly.

She chuckled, "It's okay. You're not the first, you won't be the last. Nopony really looks at a pegasus and thinks 'gardener'."

"Why do you wear that though? That must be really uncomfortable to work in." He asked, his voice making it obvious he was imagining how it would feel to have his wings trapped in such a way.

"Not much of a choice really. I have to carry around my gardening tools in something and they don't really make these with pegasi in mind. You get used to it though." The mare answered.

"I guess..."

"Now come on, let's get you to the hospital."

"Wait what? I don't think my wing's that bad." He said in objection.

"Doesn't matter, we're going to the hospital." She repeated.

"No, really, you don't have to do that, I know the way there and you look busy." He objected again.

"It's fine, I'm kind of self employed. Besides, you almost wrecked my garden, I think you at least owe me a walk through town." The mare countered.

"Oh...uh...I guess if you put it that way, sure." The colt relented, clearly unsure of how to respond to her tone this time.

She laughed softly again at the nervous edge to his voice, "Good, let's go."

"I...thanks. I didn't catch your name?"

"Oh right, sorry, it's-"

Lance nearly leaped out of his skin as the conversation on the other side of the wall was brutally interrupted by the sharp hissing of steam in the fog a distance off to his left. He was back on his hooves without realizing it, staring wide eyed into the mist. He heard the screech of metal scraping against metal before something impacted the wall hard enough to make it visibly quake beside him. There was a pause before it happened again, the strike joined by the sound of the cobblestone cracking from the force this time. With one last metallic screech he heard the wall give way and collapse in a clatter of falling rocks, then silence.

He waited for something else to happen, but nothing did.

...

Had that...had that been 'it'?

...

"No, focus." He told himself again. There was something wrong with this place, he was certain, but that only made it all the more important that he keep his wits about him. Right now he wanted to get to town and there was a wall in his way which the fog would not let him fly over. He had no clue how far it extended in either direction from the path, but he did know there was a breach in the wall now. If 'it' had indeed been what had broken through just now, it was either unaware he was there or just not interested. Going to investigate was the most timely solution to the problem that this wall had become.

Even with his logic trying to reason away the tension gripping his chest, the more primal parts of his brain screamed at him to stay put all the same when he forced his hooves onward alongside the wall. He continued to disobey them but thought it wise to at least pay them a little attention, making every effort to move quietly and stay ready to gallop away as fast as he could if it proved necessary. His eyes never stopped scanning the fog around him looking for any sort of looming shape or movement as he crept along.

After what Lance felt was far too long a time the breach in the wall finally came into view. If the size of the hole was anything to go by whatever had made it was easily two heads taller than he was. He slowly poked his head through, looking around to find nothing there on the other side, though with how thick the fog was there could still be anything there just out of sight for all he knew. The important thing was that he had a way through the wall now.

Lance took a deep breath and let it out to steel his nerves before he stepped through. Once more, nothing happened. Opting to not push his luck by staying put he doubled back along the wall with cautious haste. The creeping fear of yet another inexplicable return to the same side of the wall was eased when he came across the path again, this side free of both the sign and the drawings he had made in the dirt. He briefly considered looking for the two ponies he had heard talking but yet another mysterious rustling of foliage in the fog compelled him to resume his trip into town. Besides, they had been heading for a hospital, which meant they were probably headed in the same direction as he was anyway.

Following another ten minutes spent trotting along the path ignoring all manner of mysterious noises, Lance finally saw the end of his trip within sight. It was a large wooden sign at the side of the road, well weathered with barely any paint remaining. Even with most of the paint missing he could still read the stark white letters meant to contrast against the uncharacteristic black paint:

Welcome to Ponyville

Comments

[Thegodhand]

I love the silent hill town sign imagery here

[Genesis1212]

amazing, capturing silent hills atmosphere of confusion, disorientation and fear of the uncertain and unknown i applaude you, you are doing a FANTASTIC job :D 716299 that make two of us :P

[Mashuga31]

doesn't feel like silent ponyville yet, but i'll keep reading.

[Divine Path]

One must wonder how much luck the doctor will possess before he at last does encounter a part of the Nightmare.
I hope he will survive. For there is not a pony who deserves to be devoured by their own guilt.
I shall read on!

[Spark of Serenity]

As a forewarning to anyone reading these comments, I am reading through this story a second time, so I my comments may contain spoilers! You have been warned!

This chapter is the calm before the inevitable storm. Everything is still save for the random noises which slowly start to wear at Lance's psych. Then of course, the message in the library window and the remnants of the binds that kept "it" (the Sovereign, if I am not mistaken) from escaping were a major psychological scare factor.

I am curious about a couple if things, and hopefully you will be able to provide some answers:

In chapter 2, both Lance and Twilight agree that Lance's dreams are not like that ones like that of Twilight's other Mind Delve patients. When Twilight scans Lance's dreams, she does not see his dreams, but is instead placed precariously above the different elements in his dreams. Why was Twilight not able to see what was in Lance's dreams? How are his dreams different from Pinkie's and Fluttershy's?

In chapter 3, assuming that the message "It got out" was referring to the Sovereign, I have a theory regarding this. What if the Sovereign and all the other creepies from Lance's dreams were in Lance's head all along but were released after Lance's most recent encounter with Fluttershy? What if the Sovereign was there chained up all along and broke free after Lance was confronted by his daughter? Also, could the scissor-mouthed mare (I think that's what the monster was called, I forget) have had something to do with the Sovereign's initial escape? Could the mare freeing the Sovereign represent Fluttershy confronting her father? These are mostly theories and ideas I have, but I would love to have your input on these crazy concoctions :)

Onward!

[justheretoreadstories]

Welcome to Ponyville

Welcome to Hell.

[HiddenEntity]

'It got out.'

well shit

[Chapter 17]

11274722
It'll be fiiiiiiiiine

[Moonlight Tome]

Been feeling nostalgic, so I reread Silent Ponyville's 1 and 2, and am now picking this up again after stopping at this chapter.

Writing style is very different so far. You seem a lot more patient, willing to add a bit of tedium and tension. Nicely done.

Onward to Ponyville!