Silent Ponyville: Iced Over

by Quadraginta

Chapter 2

Applejack could hear the shrieks of the monsters. They sounded close. She had to act fast.

She noticed a red cylinder on the floor. Upon picking it up, she noticed that it was an emergency flare. 'Maybe I can use this to signal for help later on.' she thought to herself as she placed it in her bag '....if help even exists here....' she concluded glumly. Somewhere in her gut, she knew that Silent Ponyville would probably not be kind enough to offer much help.

She checked her map to see if anything had changed, and something had. The X that was over the library had somehow shifted to Town Hall. "Town Hall?" Applejack wondered out loud. "That's a bit of a walk away....and with those things roaming around Ponyville..." Applejack shuddered. She prayed to Celestia that she wouldn't run into those things as she stepped out of the library.

Just as Applejack had suspected, all of Ponyville was frozen. The floor was covered in a sheet of ice, and all of the buildings were frozen. Applejack steeled her nerves and began her trek to Town Hall.

At first, the walk seemed as if it would go by in peace, but then, Applejack's camera started emitting static, and her flashlight started flickering. 'Static?' thought Applejack. 'At first, it was a whining noise, and now static? The flashlight's flickering again too, now.'

Applejack took several steps forward and turned a corner, and then she saw them. The monsters. There were three of the pony-esque monsters, walking as if in a drunken stupor. As soon as Applejack shined the flashlight in their general direction, they all turned around, let out high pitched shrieks and began converging on Applejack.

Applejack immediately turned around and galloped away as fast as she could. She turned a corner and ran as fast as she could, not even thinking to look back. The shrieking sounds of the monsters and the sound of their galloping hooves could be heard as they relentlessly pursued Applejack.

'Get away from me!' She thought as she turned and ran down a dark alleyway and knocked over a garbage pail in vain hopes that it would slow them down. She didn't dare risking a look back at the monsters, though.

She ran and ran, pushing herself to her very limits, her leg muscles screaming, her mind telling her to go faster. She wanted nothing more but to get away from them.

And then she saw it. Town Hall. Out of all the buildings in Ponyville, this was the only building that wasn't covered in ice. In fact, the doors gave off an inviting blue glow. Applejack just assumed at that point that a soft, blue glow meant that it was accessible.

'Yes!' she thought in triumph. She would go in as fast as she could, and then close the doors on the monsters, so that they wouldn't be able to get in. And knowing this frozen version of Ponyville, Applejack knew that there was something important inside that she had to do. She just hoped it wasn't another stupid, childish puzzle.

Just as she was about to reach Town Hall, one of the monsters managed to grab her. "No!" Applejack screamed out loud, bucking off the monster. It flew off of her in a somewhat comical fashion, however, where Applejack managed to buck one off, several more leaped on top of her in a doggy pile. "NO!!!!" Applejack screamed again, louder this time.

'So close!' She thought desperately as her body temperature dropped. 'So....close...' Applejack could feel her very blood freezing. She was going to die from hypothermia. Just as her consciousness started slipping away, an old memory popped into her mind. A memory of when she was just a filly.......

"Put this on. It'll keep you warm." Big Mac said as he knelt down and wrapped a large, warm blanket over Applejack's freezing, dripping wet body. "Warm enough, yet?"

"N-n-no...." Applejack muttered tearfully.

"Maybe this will help." Big Mac said as he reached into a small bag. "Out of matches?" he mumbled as he dug through the bag. "I'll just have to use this, then." He pulled out a small red cylinder. It was a flare. He lit it and threw it in the fire pit, which burst into flames, smoke curling up into the sky as if it were a coiled, black snake.

"Better now?" asked Big Mac. Applejack sniffled. "Yes." She replied as she nuzzled closer to her older brother and cried softly....

Applejack was glad to be nuzzling next to Big Mac's warm body, because that night, she had come very close to feeling Death's Embrace. And Death's Embrace was very, very cold....

'The flare!' thought Applejack as her will to live sparked anew. She wrestled one of her arms away from the monsters and reached desperately into her bag. 'Gotta...reach...the flare...!' Her hoof grabbed the flare. 'Yes!' She thought triumphantly.

She smacked the flare against the floor, lighting it. The monsters all jumped off of Applejack as soon as it lit, crawling away and cowering in fear at the heat of the flare.

Applejack tried to get up, however, the monsters lowered her body temperature to a point where she could barely feel her limbs, and she limped heavily because of it. She limped as quickly as she could to the Town Hall and dropped her flare just as she reached the inside.

As soon as Applejack stepped in Town Hall, the ice that was inside immediately started to receded away. It didn't melt. It didn't shattered. It simply receded away into a corner of Town Hall, where it vanished from sight. The sound of the monsters shrieking disappeared as well, along with the sparkling, hissing sound of the flare. The freezing cold that permeated throughout her body also disappeared, leaving her refreshed and warm.

Applejack stood there for a moment, allowing everything to sink in all at once. She had let Rarity try to help her, and then she seemingly blacked out, and when she returned, all of Ponyville seemingly got deserted and was now in a purgatory-like state. If purgatory was covered in an endless blizzard, and occasionally got invaded by an icy world of creatures that previously only existed in Applejack's nightmares, that is.

Thinking about Rarity made Applejack upset. She missed her. She missed all of her dear friends. Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle.

'Twilight!' Applejack thought in frustration. 'Oh, if only I had waited for her to help me instead of letting Rarity!' Twilight would surely know what to do at a time like this. Wouldn't she?

None of that mattered right now, though. Applejack wanted answers. No. NEEDED answers. And if she was ever going to get them, she would just have to play along with this...this.....Silent Ponyville.

"Applejack wanted to see me?" Twilight asked Spike as soon as she had returned home from her trip. She was followed by Fluttershy.

"Yeah." replied Spike. "Something about nightmares. Applejack looked really exhausted from it. Rarity stopped by, too, and I told them both about the spell you used to cure them. I also gave them the book that had the spell."

"You did what?!" asked Fluttershy in a loud voice, which surprised both Spike and Twilight, as she was not known for raising her voice.

"I-I-I only did what Rarity asked me to!" Spike said.

"Calm down, Fluttershy" Twilight said, trying to defend Spike.

Fluttershy took Twilight by the hooves and pulled her out of the library and to Carousel Boutique as quickly as she could.

"Wait, what's so bad anout Rarity having the spell?" Twilight asked the yellow pegasus as she frantically pulled her along.

"You don't understand!" Fluttershy replied. "Remember when we told you not to use that spell ever again?!"

"Uh, yeah, but you never told me why!" Twilight replied as Fluttershy rounded a corner. "But Rarity can only use her magic for sewing and making dresses. Why would she want to borrow the spell book itself? She'd never be able to do the spell."

"Well" said Fluttershy as they quickly approached Carousel Boutique. "There's only one way to find out. She pushed open the door to the Boutique and went in.

"Oh no." Fluttershy said, barely above a whisper. In front of her was Applejack, her eyes and face were completely devoid of any expression or emotion, and Rarity's horn was glowing and it was gently placed upon Applejack's forehead. Which could only mean one thing.

"The spell. She's using the spell." said Fluttershy. Fluttershy stepped closer to Rarity and saw that she had her eyes closed. Rarity was either ignoring them completely, or didn't, or couldn't notice them.

"....connect our minds." spoke Fluttershy after several moments of thought.

"Can you at least explain to me first how-" began Twilight, before she was interrupted by Fluttershy.

"Just do it. Please." Fluttershy looked at Twilight, eyes pleading.

".....Alright" Twilight said. "But since the spell has already been cast, I might have a bit of trouble trying to connect you. But I'll figure something out."

Fluttershy nodded and turned her gaze back to Applejack.

Applejack looked around the inside of Town Hall, and surprise surprise, it was almost completely empty, save for another cellar door that looked almost exactly the same as the one in the library.

"This town and it's cellar doors..." commented Applejack as she studied the door. Embedded into the floor next to it was a numpad. Next to it was a note with the word "Hello" written on it.

"Must be a clue to the code." Applejack concluded. "But what kind of a clue is Hello?" She wondered. And then it came to her. "01134" she said as she inputted the code. The numpad beeped three times, and then the ice melted off of the cellar door and evaporated.

"This town and it's games." grunted Applejack irritably as she stepped down the cellar. The cellar was pretty much an exact carbon copy of the one in the library. Same texture, same coloured walls, same lamp, everything was the same. Except this time, there wasn't a note in the center of the floor. There was a door on the other side of the cellar. When Applejack had taken several steps towards the door, the camera started emitting a high-pitched whining sound, and her flashlight started flickering. 'So, a whining noise means a picture, and static means monsters.' she concluded.

Applejack took several more steps forward before a blinding flash of light filled her vision. 'And no matter what, my flashlight will always flicker.' She waited for the flash to dim and fade away, before she checked her camera, right as it made the quick buzzing sound effect. She took out the camera and looked at it. On the small screen was a picture of-

Applejack gasped. She recognized the pony in the picture, she recognized him, his big physical build, his green mane, his bright orange fur. It was her father. Her father, whom nopony knew about, except Applejack. At least, she THOUGHT she knew about him. Didn't she?

She racked her mind to remember memories of herself and her father, but nothing. She couldn't remember anything about her father. Or her mother, for that matter. Just what fate befell Applejack's parents? And why couldn't Applejack remember anything about them? She would just have to figure it out herself, and the only way to do so was to keep playing this town's sick games.

She placed the camera back into her bag and withdrew her map. The X was still pointed above Town Hall. 'Well, I guess I should go through that door.' She thought to herself as she opened the door and stepped through. Extending through the doorway was a very long tunnel, with a dim light glowing faintly on the other end.

"Go towards the light." Applejack chuckled to herself as she began traveling down the tunnel. The sound of her hoofsteps could be heard echoing throughout the tunnel.

When Applejack reached the end of the tunnel, she saw that the light did not seem to be coming from any light source. The light itself seemed to be solid. Applejack raised one hoof and reached over to touch the light. The light seemed to ripple as her hoof sunk into it. She allowed the rest of her body to go into the light. Applejack emerged on the other side of the light, and she ended up in-

Applejack let out a small gasp. It had stopped snowing, and in front of her was a farm, full of life, full of trees, with animals frolicing around everywhere. There was a large house built in the center of the farm, and she could saw...herself. Her younger self, running around happily with her older brother Bic Mac, She saw her parents, too, her earth pony father, and her unicorn mother, and her parents were talking to-

Applejack let out another small gasp. Her parents were talking to the pony in the business suit. The same exact pony that was in the picture in her camera, except here, his face was friendly. He smiled, although it didn't look natural. It seemed forced. As if he was planning to do something else, and he just wanted to get it over with, but had to force himself to be patient and go along with the plans.

Applejack blinked, and everything she saw instantly vanished. Her parents, the pony in the business suit, herself and Big Mac, and all the frolicing animals were gone. Even the farm itself was gone. Disappeared without a trace.

Applejack had somehow transfered to the front door of Town Hall, without any previous knowledge of walking back there. She was dumbstruck at everything that had just happened.

'...A vision.' She concluded. 'This town led me here to show me a vision of when I still lived with my parents on their farm. But why?' No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't come up with any solid answers.

She took the map out of her bag and saw that the X had moved again. This time, to a river by the Everfree Forest. 'The Everfree Forest?' She thought to herself. This would be the most dangerous place she would have to travel through by far, however, if the Everfree Forest was anything like the rest of Ponyville, than it would most likely be barren. She would just have to go and find out.

She put her map away and began walking towards the Everfree Forest.

"Applejack." came a voice from behind Applejack, effectively startling her. She turned around to see who called her name. It was Fluttershy.

Comments

[Tod309]

This is great. I've always wondered what it would be like for AJ to take a trip to Silent Ponyville. Can't wait to see how this goes.

[Quadraginta]

2429004

Thanks, I fix'd the problem.

[Aaronmaster2007]

This is great. Now to see what's next.

[Xarsor]

Thinking about Rarity made Applejack upset. She missed her. She missed all of her dear friends. Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle.

Not Pinkie though, no one cares about Pinkie. (no happy Fluttershy)