Tales of Another Ponyville

by Paradise Oasis

Dark and Dangerous

"Okay, be careful, everyone!" Daisy Paisley tells us, as we pass out into the outside world. "It could be really dangerous out here, so we have to be careful!"

She is right, of course... the lands beyond Ponyville is a dark and foreboding place. As soon as we leave the valley, the sky changes from a bright blue, to a dark and smokey black. The air grows heavy and thick with a smog that fills our lungs, and chokes the breath out of our very throats. And the trees go from looking alive and full of color, to sickly plants barely clinging to life. The stench of death hangs in the air all around us, and the four little ponies in this rescue party wish they had never left home.

"Cough, cough! Ugh, this air is terrible dahling!" Rainbow Dash complained, raising a hoof to her dainty mouth. "It feels like it's burning my throat!"

"Try to take smaller breaths, Dashie, and we need to get to a place with clean air very quickly." Spring Fever declared, looking over our team's leader as she would a patient. "I'm worried about the damage this toxic atmosphere is doing to our lungs."

I've always thought Equestria was a nice and beautiful place.... where and sun princess and moon princess watched over a happy kingdom of ponies who are all friends with each other. But this... this place looks like an apocalyptic wasteland, with cold and death and fear all around us. The little animals and birds flee in terror from us, as if a pony was the most horrifying predator in the world one could encounter. And if that's the case, then I hope we can complete our mission and get home before we encounter one of those ponies they are so terrified of.

"Ugh, my head hurts." Daisy stops for a second, raising a hood and rubbing her head. "I don't know what's wrong, but my something is really, really wrong."

"Just stop, and try to catch your breath, Daisy." I tell her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "We don't need you getting sick, too."

My name is Blue Mist, the azure stallion with a pink mane. I'm the stallion in Ponyville who works at the library as Storybelle's assistant. (I'm also her boyfriend, eh heh...) I'm the pony who reads all the little fillies and colts fairy tales and stories when they come for junior story club every week. I just love fantasy stories, fantastic tales where the warrior maiden saves the helpless stallion. When I was a little colt, I would often pretend I was a handsome prince, just waiting in a castle guarded by a dragon for a beautiful princess to save me!

I wish I was in one of those fairy stories right now, instead of slogging along this unknown road in a very scary Equestria. Our little rescue party is on a mission to bring back Princess Wysteria, who ran away in a hot air balloon when she felt under-appreciated in Ponyville. Rainbow Jumped in and offered to lead our search team, and Doctor Spring Fever is here in case she needs medical attention. Daisy is Ponyville's best tracker, and is following the wind's currents to where they would have taken the twinkle balloon.

And me? I'm just here as the token stallion, so the party is balanced. I jumped in and volunteered right away, wanting to go along on a rescue mission that was sooo much like the fairy tales I love to read! But this adventure is turning out to be less of a fairy tale... and more of a nightmare.

"It's so cold here... Blue dahling, why is it so cold?" Rainbow asked, shivering as a gust of wind chilled her. "Didn't you say the Pegasus of Equestria controlled the weather beyond Ponyville?"

"Well, that's what the storybooks say, but I really don't know why they'd let it get this cold." I reply, shivering as another cold gust hit me. "Maybe the Pegasus like the cold air?"

"They'd have to be cold blooded, to survive in this horrible environment." Spring Fever replied, stifling a cough of her own. "I'm worried what damage the toxins have done to Princess Wysteria, if she's been out here this long."

"The wind still seems to be blowing in this direction, so we'd better keep following this path." Daisy told us, pointing a hoof farther down the path. "We'd better pick up our pace if we want to catch up with her balloon."

We continued trotting on for several miles, feeling sicker and sicker as we went. Soon, we saw a half rotted signpost that said 'Baltimatre' in faded letters. But since none of us had ever head of that place, we simply ignored it and pressed on. Soon, and eerie mist began to roll in over the path, and the air around us became deathly still.

"Wow, I've never heard it this quiet before." Daisy whispered, her breath visible in the cold. "I think I could hear a hat pin drop."

"Look up there on the road, dahling!" Rainbow Dash called out pointing a hoof further down the path. "It looks like a local pony. Maybe we could ask for directions?"

We all looked forward, and saw what appeared to be a stallion step out onto the road ahead. His grey coat and black mane seemed to blend in with the mist and fog, making him barely visible. He seemed to not notice us, just standing there staring off in the other direction.

"Hello, excuse me?" Spring Fever called out taking a few steps forward and addressing the stranger loud enough for him to hear. "Sorry to bother you, my good sir, but could you be so kind as to give us some directions?"

"Uhhh, Spring?" Daisy asked, a frightened tone creeping into her voice. "I-I really don't think you should do that..."

The stallion slowly turned his head towards us, and we all suddenly gasped in horror. The pony's eyes seemed to glow like the headlights on Sooctaloo's scooter. We were all frozen, like deer caught in bright lights, before the stallion suddenly gave out a high-pitched screech.

"PONYVILLE PONIES!" The horrific looking pony shrieked, pointing a hoof at us. "PONYVILLE PONIES IN EQUESTRIA!!"

Suddenly, as if summoned by the stallion's hideous cry, hundreds of Equestrian ponies came crawling out of the trees. Mares and stallion glared at us, their eyes blazing light torches, fangs bared and saliva oozing from their mouths like the venom of a snake. Their bodies were small and sickly looking, as if they were malnourished. And their heads were and eyes were ridiculously swollen and enlarged, as if by disease. They swarmed down upon us in a mad frenzy, as if driven by an unreasonable hatred and rage.

"AHHHH! THEY MAKE MY EYES BURN!"

"KILL THEM WITH FRIENDSHIP!"

"LOVE...TOLERATE....BURN THEM WITH FIRE!"

"AIEEEEEEEEE! Everybody, RUN!" We all screamed in unison, turning tails and running away.

They frenzied Equestrians were hot on our hooves, a burning look of hunger as if they were ready to devour us. We galloped as fast as our hooves would carry us through the mists, but the ravenous equines crawled down every tree, and slithered out of every hole. There seemed to be no escape from our pursuers.

"Faster, girls, faster!" I cried out in a panic, running behind them and trying to urge the other tree on. "They're gaining on us!"

This... this can't be Equestria! Equestria is a beautiful land of sunshine and rainbows, not slobbering trolls ponies boiling over with rage! I turn to look back, hoping to see some glimmer of the gentle ponies from my fairy stories about Equestria. But in their eyes I see only hatred.... raw, unreasoning, burning hatred. Is this why the Princess of Friendship had Ponyville sealed away from the rest of Equestria? To protect us from this?

"Oh No! They're in front of us!" Spring Fever cried out, stopping dead as more of the Equestrian equines appeared. "This is the end, I know it!"

"Form a circle, pony darlings! Back to back!" Rainbow Dash declared, glaring at our pursuers menacingly. "If we're going to go down, we're going down fighting!"

As they close in on us, I hear their mad murmurings and insane ramblings coming from the mob.

"Destroy the false fillies!"

"Best Pony!"

"Death to the inferior generation!"

And as we prepare to fight for our lives, I am left only to wonder where all of the friendship went...

Author's Note:

Yep, good Old Misty's my boyfriend.. so sorry girls, he's taken!

Storybelle

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

Awww... I was really hoping for Storybelle and the girls (and one guy) to end up in the Equestrian Wasteland... where they will see TRUE horror. I wouldn't be surprised if ghouls and hellhounds wouldn't even touch the Ponyville Ponies with a 5000 foot pole.

[FleetlordAvatar]

Well, that was unexpected. Are they some sort of cult? Or has industrialisation taken its toll?

[Vanilla Mocha]

XD this is very true about the majority of our fandom!

[Aatxe360]

I just noticed your description of this story. You might want to fix that.

[Paradise Oasis]

7050629

How? it's still about G3 Ponyville. It's the rest of the world that's gone nuts!

[Paradise Oasis]

7050406

Industrialization and the gizmonks experiments are everywhere, and some pretty nasty results are roaming what little remains of the wilds.

[Paradise Oasis]

7050989

Also, remember that this shows that Equestria was once a bright and happy place with friendly ponies, and has now degenerated into this.

[La Vallett1]

Did Equestria turn a little like Victorian London or other smog-choked cities of the same era?

Also I feel displeased at some comments painting all of the brony fandom negatively due to the behaviour of very vocal minorities.

[AppleKit]

The stallion slowly turned his head towards us, and we all suddenly gasped in horror. The pony's eyes seemed to glow like the headlights on Sooctaloo's scooter. We were all frozen, like deer caught in bright lights, before the stallion suddenly gave out a high-pitched screech.

Similar to Canterlot ghouls, hehe

[Paradise Oasis]

11045029
Heh, to make it worse; in my stories, this is the time period leading up to the G5 movie when all pony types hate each other. That's why these Equestria ponies appear so ghoulish to the Ponyvillers; they are full of blind hate and rage.